And in that scarlet orb almost feathered for conception there are no illusions of immortality Only a whiney yolk to perhaps improbably further on the species So precisely every 28 days we women house a miscellaneous creation that there in the painful cotton we are reminded of tides corn growing in season ageless labors and ancient orders fixing us in the tradition of an acorn We pass life and it is garbage it is graceful waste it is falling off the roof as my mother called it it is terrifying to have an opening that bleeds it has been called a wound every 28 days passing rhythm seasons musical blood

There is no pretense on the pad it is biological failure the ovary is dutiful not ambitious it just accidentally fructates the mensual connection of love for what is life and death

O Isis my mississippi my delta

Summer Brenner

Books by Summer Brenner who was an Albuquerque resident when Everyone Came Dressed As Water was published (1973) by The Grasshopper Press (Pat Bolles' press in the Yale Street Grasshopper Bookstore). Also shown here: From the Heart to the Center (1977), Dancers & the Dance: Stories (1990), and Ivy: Tale of a Homeless Girl in San Francisco (2000).

She was born in Atlanta and has been a long-time resident of Berkeley. I-5 is a crime novel that explores sex trafficking. In my "Poet and Artist Friends Album" there is a beautiful photograph of her and her son yes a few years ago. Her website is Summer Brenner.